South Shore Hospital and Partners Healthcare still look to merge

According to hospital spokeswoman Sarah Darcy, South Shore Hospital officials are committed to seeking a proposed merger with Partners HealthCare despite the state Health Policy Commission's claim the union would result in a $15.8 million increase in costs for the state's three biggest insurance carriers: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan.

According to hospital spokeswoman Sarah Darcy, South Shore Hospital officials are committed to seeking a proposed merger with Partners HealthCare despite the state Health Policy Commission’s claim the union would result in a $15.8 million increase in costs for the state’s three biggest insurance carriers: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan.

The Health Policy Commission submitted its final report on the proposed merger to State Attorney General Martha Coakley for a 30-day review Feb. 19. Commission director of policy for market performance Karen Tseng said the proposed merger would also cause a $23 million increase in total medical expenses, along with the added expenses on the three insurance carriers.

Tseng also said the proposed merger would result in increases of $7.4 million to $10.6 million in patient referral health care costs, but the joining of the providers would also result in $6.6 million in efficiencies. According to Tseng, Partners Healthcare made unsubstantiated claims of greater savings, some of which were “inconsistent with objective data.”

Partners chief of staff Peter Brown said the commission based its ruling by looking at the proposed merger through the “lens of the past.”

“We have a difference of opinion with the Health Policy Commission,” Brown said. “We are looking at the merger through the lens of the present. The HPC is looking through a lens of the past on outdated data in a rapidly changing health environment. One of our goals is to provide health care close to patient’s homes. That is our vision.”

Brown said Partners recently reduced its growth of Medicare expenses by 2.4 percent through participation in a federal Accountable Care Organization cost savings program, which resulted in a $14.4 million savings, but the commission appears to be ignoring that success in its opposition to the proposed merger.